Look for Signs of 'Problem Behavior' Early, Educators Told

Washington--Clues to the likelihood of "problem behavior" in
adolescents may emerge as early as the first grade. But the behavior
itself--drinking, use of drugs, and smoking--may simply be a natural
part of a young person's transition to adulthood.

These findings of recent studies on the subject of adolescent
behavior hold several implications for educators, according to the two
investigators who conducted the research. They discussed both the
findings and the implications at a special symposium on adolescence at
the annual meeting of the American School Health Association (asha),
held here last week.

Early Intervention Useful

For educators, the speakers said, it may be more useful to
concentrate on intervening early, finding ways to "delay onset" of the
troublesome practices, and trying to minimize the6damage that can
result when students do smoke, drink, use drugs, and engage in early
sexual activity.

But trying to prevent such practices altogether among teenagers may
be unrealistic, said one researcher, because they may be a necessary
part of growing up. "Engaging in problem behavior plays a major role in
the normal transition process," said Richard Jessor, a University of
Colorado psychologist. "It isn't useful to consider adolescent problem
behavior as arbitrary, or irrational, or as merely perverse." On the
contrary, these activities, like all other forms of behavior, are
''functional, goal-oriented, and meaningful," he said.

Whether or not it is preventable, some of that teenage behavior, a
University of Chicago psychiatrist told the health officials, may be
predictable at an earlier age than was previously believed--and its
predictability may help educators better plan strategies to cope.

In a 12-year study of schoolchildren on Chicago's south side,
Sheppard G. Kellam and colleagues found, he told the health group, that
some aspects of a child's behavior and performance in the first grade
were "predictors" of certain kinds of problem behavior in the 10th
grade.

Early Signs

The first-grade classroom, Dr. Kellam said, is an "overwhelmingly
important arena in long-term development." A child's behavior and
performance in the first grade may provide school officials with clues
that he or she is likely to use drugs and alcohol, and to experience
depression and other psychiatric symptoms in high school," he said.

In the study, which began in 1966, the Kellam team surveyed 1,200
first-graders in Woodlawn, a low-income area on the south side of
Chicago. The researchers looked at children's behavior, as evaluated by
their teachers, as well as at test scores indicating I.Q., readiness
for school, and other predictors
of academic success. In 1976, they tracked down and reassessed 705 of
the students, then in the 10th grade, and evaluated their psychological
well-being, as well as their use of drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes.

While they were able to link variations in the children's home life
with their performance in the first grade, the researchers found, Dr.
Kellam said, that "from the first grade on, the classroom itself
becomes predominantly important, particularly for males, in the
long-term outcomes of the children."

The first-graders were tested on the "social tasks" demanded of
them, and were scored for such things as shyness, aggressiveness, and
ability to master the first-grade material.

Ten years later, they compared that information with information
gathered from the same students, then in 10th grade. Their analysis,
Dr. Kellam said, showed at least two separate sets of predictors in the
first grade.

'Readiness Tests'

The first-graders who scored high on "readiness tests" as well as on
I.Q. tests, were, ten years later, as likely as the less bright, eager
students to have tried alcohol and marijuana.

Subsequent analysis showed that the greater frequency of use among
bright children occurred because they experimented earlier than their
less bright classmates, Dr. Kellam said.

A distinction based on whether a first-grader was shy or
aggressive--or both--provided the researchers with another, independent
measure of future use of drugs or alcohol, but only among boys.

Shy first-grade boys were less likely than aggressive boys to use
drugs or alcohol, but the greatest users were the "shy-aggressive"
boys, the solitary rule-breakers, Dr. Kellam said.

The study also revealed that3learning problems in the first grade,
especially among boys, tended to presage later psychiatric symptoms,
Dr. Kellam said. Those 10th-grade students who had not experienced
learning problems in the first grade reported fewer feelings of
depression and other symptoms.

Other researchers who have conducted long-term studies of the same
phenomena have reached similar conclusions, Dr. Kellam said.

"The first-grade classroom," Dr. Kellam said, "is an enormously
powerful contest for the mastery of the basic first-grade tasks, which
has important implications not only for further mastery, but also for
psychiatric symptoms.

"As we learn more about it, we can see that interventions in the
first grade will be crucial, and that they will be more specificially
tailored," he said.

Educators may also be better able to deal with adolescents' behavior
problems if they understand the students' motives for behaving in ways
that are socially unacceptable and sometimes illegal, said Richard
Jessor, who, together with his wife, has studied problem behavior for
20 years.

Mr. Jessor described six "goals" that, consciously or unconsciously,
motivate students who use drugs or alcohol, smoke, run away from home,
or engage in other forms of behavior regarded as problematic. For such
students, the behavior:

Is a way of effectively achieving unattainable goals;

Gives them a way of coping with frustration or failure--for example,
drinking provides an escape from problems;

Allows them to express rebellious feelings;

Is a way of establishing solidarity with peers--for example, smoking
in the school parking lot;

Allows them to express and confirm their own identities;

Is an affirmation of maturity, and a way of "negotiating" with
soci6ety for the privileges accorded adults.

Adolescents who engage in one form of behavior unacceptable to
parents and teachers are likely to try others as well, Mr. Jessor said.
For example, students who have used marijuana are more likely to engage
in early sexual activity than those who have not used marijuana.

Girls Joining Boys

Moreover, he said, students are beginning to engage in problematic
behaviors at a younger age, and girls, who once refrained from many of
these activities, are now joining the boys. "All of these behaviors are
strongly interrelated," Mr. Jessor said. "They go together in the same
young people."

The Jessors' research findings also indicate that conventional
behavior--involvement in school and church activities--decreases as the
student engages in more unacceptable activities.

In a study that followed the lives of a group of seventh-, eighth-,
and ninth-graders over a period of four years, the Jessors found that
the students became more prone to "problem behavior" as they became
older. "Normal development," Mr. Jessor said, "is a process of
increasing proneness to problem behavior."

The traditional approach to problem behavior has been to try to
prevent it, but Mr. Jessor suggested a different approach.

"Obviously, there is no way we can prevent young people from doing
most of these things. The real issue has to be thought of differently.
It has to be, I think, thought of as a recognition that sooner or
later, they will get into most of these things."

The role of educators, he said, becomes one of minimizing students'
involvement in possibly harmful activities, with the goal of insulating
them against the negative consequences of "exploration," which, he
said, is what problem behavior is all about.

Delaying, rather than trying to prevent, such activities may be a
more useful approach.

For example, if students wait even one year before engaging in
sexual activity, he said, they will be better able to handle it
emotionally.

The schools have a "key role" to play in this process, Mr. Jessor
said. Programs that inculcate students with a positive sense of self,
and give students a stake in the larger society, may prevent some of
the problems.

Vol. 01, Issue 08

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